GM Has Its Fill of Walgreens Prescriptions

February 14, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - In what
appears to be a preemptive strike, General Motors Corp. is
reportedly dropping Walgreens from its network of
prescription-drug providers, anticipating that the drugstore
chain might sever its ties with the automaker over rules
requiring some prescriptions to be filled by mail.

However, according to the Associated Press, the nation’s
largest drugstore chain said it had no plans to cut ties to
GM and hoped to continue serving its employees.

GM has informed its 1.1 million employees, retirees, and
their spouses and dependents in the US that, effective
March 1, they won’t be able to fill prescriptions at
Walgreen’s 4,200-plus stores. That means that about 10% of
all GM-covered households that fill prescriptions will need
to find a new participating retail pharmacy, according to
the automaker.
GM’s prescription provider, New Jersey-based Medco Health
Services, said they decided to cut ties with Walgreen out
of concern it would stop doing business with GM, as it did
last month with the state of Ohio.

Walgreens, saying it disapproved of Ohio’s mandatory
mail-order program for some drugs, stopped accepting
prescriptions from Ohio government employees on January 1
(see
press release
).

GM was one of several auto industry firms, including
Ford, DaimlerChrysler, and suppliers Visteon and Delphi,
that last year adopted a mandatory mail-order program for
maintenance drugs. Such medication must be taken for a long
period of time, such as cholesterol-lowering drugs.
Last month, Toyota Motor announced that it was requiring
employees to get many medications through on-site
pharmacies and mail orders, a move that led CVS, which had
previously opted out of the health plan for the state of
Ohio on similar grounds, to opt out of the car
manufacturer’s drug plan as well (see
CVS Drops Toyota, Ohio Health Plans
).

Walgreens announced in December 2003 it wouldn’t
join new prescription benefit programs that mandate
filling chronic prescriptions through a mail service
facility, noting that its goal is to ensure patients have
the choice of filling these long-term maintenance
medications at either their local community pharmacy or
through a mail service pharmacy.